Lets get the answer out of the way, I don’t know do you ?

I imagine that some writers experience the  beginning of any post very much in a manner I do. At the beginning you think the article is expressing a particular idea and as you go along putting together the words that make up the paragraph, the article morphs into a direction of its own.  I started off this paragraph thinking Iwas going to write about my observation on how Twitter is used. However it started morphing with each grammar and spell checking iteration. Anyway on with the post …

Being a black person I grow more curious each day about what  it is that my fellow black Twitterers actually tweet about.  This question is surprisingly a little more complicated than it sounds because in this country a bulls eye on a ‘black profile’ is ermm, black art actually; remember the “Black Diamond“  ? Now  I am no researcher but if anecdotal evidence is anything to go by, I have Identified at least three categories.

Early Adopter Uber Black Geek

These are the guys who started talking about Twitter probably in 2007,  @Notomodungwa, @FigoMago, @lebogang_nkoane and @Rafiq spring to mind. There is a lot more, but as i write this , it is pastmidnight and the missus is not impressed with me so i will move swiftly along.

They most likely have a coding background and if you go through their stuff, you’ll probably find an old 14.4 dial-up modems they are too reluctant to throw away or donate to their nearest museum. They are leaders in their spheres of influence and continue to be trail blazers. Their updates are very interesting if you are in the technology space they so keenly represent. I am proud of you guys.

The Technology-Shy-But-I-wanna-Try Type

I think these are the people that we all want to see on Twitter. They are probably familiar with the concept of a social network thanks to the overwhelming popularity of facebook and dare is say it Mxit *duck*. However these users are probably the ones that are hardest to convert to Twitter as there is an expectation of a facebook-esque user experience. They have probably heard of it from Oprah and some may even have heard from radio stations such as 702.  They are growing steadily in numbers however their updates aren’t nearly as informative ; at least not to me as a geek.  The steady growth in numbers is probably attributed to the third category…

The Industry-Socialite Type

At least that is what I call them. These are the celebrity A list Type. Probably the single most significant group of people probably responsible for the widest adoption of twitter by the black masses in the country. Yes I know, you guys are modest and I love you all for the modesty but there is such a thing as a celebrity culture growing in this country and I think it is formidable. I say this because these are the people discussing ways in which you Twitter; be it through Blackberry or iPhone. I think these are the guys driving sales for these popular platforms.

The personalities are too many to mention (I did mention the missus), however I do want to mention a few; @GlenandUnathi, @SizweDhlomo, @MelBala, @PabiMoloi, @Amunishn, @Anele, @UyandaM, @DavidKau1, @DjFreshSA, @Bonang, @KhayaDlanga whom I am ye to figure out …. The list goes on. Their updates are also not nearly as informative for the high profile personalities they represent. Their updates closely resemble the days of Internet Relay Chat (IRC) of the mid 90’s and I still cannot figure out for the life of  me why I follow them, I’m certain they can’t figure it out too

What is the point of it all ?

Well the business model behind Twitter is yet to be clearly defined, however, once research organisations such as Quancast begin asking this very same question, it isn’t hard to figure out that who ever these people are, advertisers will want to speak to them.

Tweeter has become an important instant messaging tool for me. If you have not heard of tweeter before, where have you been? I see Tweeter as a crowd sourcing tool that can be used to keep in touch of others. You do not need to be crowd sourcing of course. It allows me to be a “follow” of people that interest me socially and in business too.

I have found use twitter more often than I use email, and lately more often than I use Google search. Actually more searches that I do on Google these days are a result of some info that came via Tweeter.

I also love music and lately I have been feeling that I should be going to more live performances by South African music artists. But which one should I go to? Ideally this exercise would require me to go to computicket and do a relevant search on live performance acts.

However times have changed and I have become used to my way of life. Why should I be chasing after artists, and why should I be going through obstacles to get to the information about artist that is relevant to me. I would rather prefer that the information about artists be pushed to me than seek it out. I like the convenience.

This is an application that is perfect for Tweeter. If all the artists that I like had a Tweeter profile it would make things so much easier, all I would do is ‘follow’ them and every time that they want to tell their followers about their next performance, they would just push that info out as an instant message with the relevant link to book the show.

So, here is my top 5 South African Artists that I wish had a Tweeter Profile.

What began as an article for Tweeter profile ended up sounding like a review of South African music artists web presence review.

1. Lira

She is my favorite artist singing good music that hard to catagorise. She does jazz some pop and generally the kind of music you can listen to every single day.

Her social network marketing strategy includes the use of MySpace, Facebook and well as a service I know very little about called ReverbNation. They appear to be a one stop service for management of your social network presence

2. Thandiswa

I think Zabalaza is one memorable album that I will never forget. I have been following her music since the days of Bongo Maffin and when the Zabalaza album was released, that became a signal to me that a new level of maturity in her music has been achieved.

Sadly, at the time of writing this, her site has no content all. She must be working on her site or something but it does help to put a little note. I have found a closed profile on Facebook but since there isn’t a direct link on her site I couldn’t be sure the profile i was looking at was hers.

3. Hip Hop Pantsula

I think the name says it all. Hip Hop and Pantsula, two distinct genres of music with a good historical background that stretches many years back. This dynamic artist has put the two together the two genres in a mixture called MOTSWAKO that makes listen to Hip Hop such a rewarding experience.

I think he could use some Search Engine Optimisation. His online profile is all over the place. Perhaps that is not a bad thing however leaving a major part of your online identity to a resource you have little control over, can be frustrating.

His social networking strategy involves heavy usage of MySpace. Not a bad choice with a following of close to 2000 people. However MySpace has an image about it that feels a little less professional in my Opinion. MySpace feels a little patchy and more of an afterthought. He has only made only one blog entry made 3 months ago!

I could not find on Facebook a profile I can positively identify has HHP’s profile. There are at least three so one gets confused in determining which one is managed by the artist or his PR representative. This illustrates the need to have your own web address presence (www.hiphoppantsula.co.za). Once could refer to the site to find the proper Facebook profile.

Much like Thandiswa, hiphoppantsula.co.za has no content or whatsoever.

4. Pro Kid

I am not proud to say I have not listened to much his music. However a few songs that I have listened to such as “Soweto” have impressed me much and i think he brings a style of rap with strong assertive assertions that could only have come from Soweto. He is by no means the biggest Hip Hop artists out there but certainly one I would like to see perform.

I have found no website for Prokid but instances all over the web that are either discographies or small online startups that wish to capitalize on ringtones and lyrics from his music.

5. MXO

Another brilliant artist that can rap as well as sing. He hails from the Eastern Cape and at the risk of sounding like a biography; his music is really fresh, does not conform to anything you have heard coming from the eastern cape and still compelling to keep his music on the cd tray for a while.

I think our local artist really need help. He has no .co.za that I could identify. Mxo.co.za has been taken over by a cyber squatter and so had mxo.com. The flavor of music artists; MySpace has a profile that points to another site (mxfunk.com) that does not resolve to any site at all.

I found a Facebook group profile called MXO music however, this appears to be yet another group profile probably created by a fan. It does not appear to have any information regarding performances and has all of 15 members.

What began as an article for Tweeter profile ended up sounding like a review of South African music artists web presence review. Of all the artists I reviewed here, Lira is still on top. I think it says something about her marketing team and herself as a professional. No wonder she is my favorite artist. All she needs to do is get a Tweeter profile organised.

So I was bored and started poking around profiles on Twitter.  Soon I came to the question : does the 6 degrees of separation theory apply to Twitter ?

For the slightest remote chance that you have no idea what  Twitter is, I think of it as yet another social networking (or is it social NOTworking application) that allows you to track what others are doing. It can be used as a way of letting your readers know that you posted a new title on your blog.

Your readers then receive that instant message;  in a manner that is not too different from a ‘text’ or ‘SMS’ you receive on your phone except of course you receive it on your computer.  I should mention that you can receive those messages on your cellphone but I will tackle that separately as a topic.

As I was hopping from one profile to another, building a network of sorts for people i find interesting, i began to wonder how long would it take for me to stumble upon a profile of someone I would recognise or someone that I have actually met in person ?

It did not take long, I did infact find the profile of someone I knew. More about that in a moment. Soon I wanted to find out if  a ’six degrees experiment’ has been done on the Twitter network before.  sure enough I came across Eric Gehler’s post talking about the exact same thing. Eric , I wish you luck and I will follow you.

Anyway here is how my little experiment went.

• I followed Sisiwami
• Sisiwami follows Mongezi
• Mongezi follows Themba
• Themba follows Noto whom I have known for years!
  

Now, i have no idea how the 6 degrees theory works but I think Twitter has just improved on it. Is there a moore’s law twist to the theory ?